About This PhD Project

Project Description

Project Summary: Precious metal heterogeneous catalysts will be prepared and tested in the elimination of diesel engine exhaust emissions.

Specific Requirements of the Project

Interested candidates should have an Hons Bachelor/Masters degree in a chemistry, materials science or chemical engineering related subject. They should be keen to learn new experimental techniques. Experience in materials preparation and characterisation would be beneficial but not essential.

Project Aims and Objectives

Precious metals supported on high surface area nanoporous materials are the main autocatalyst technology used to control emissions from diesel and gasoline engines. Such catalysts can simultaneously oxidise CO to CO2, while reducing NOx to nitrogen. There is a need for higher performance catalytic convertors to provide high activity in treating diesel engine exhausts. This project will investigate the development of new catalysts that offer superior performance in CO oxidation and NOx reduction and improve both low temperature activity and conversion efficiency.

Catalytically active precious metals will be deposited within the pores of high surface nanoporous supports and the activity tested in the catalytic decomposition of CO and NOx. A range of microporous and mesoporous materials will be prepared and characterised using the suite of instrumentation available at MMU (X-ray Diffraction, SEM/Raman, BET Surface Area). The final part of the project will explore the catalytic activity of all prepared materials by measuring the decomposition of gas mixtures in a fixed-bed plug flow reactor with a quartz reactor tube. This system passes a continuous gaseous mixture over a solid catalyst where the products of reaction are measured online using gas chromatography. The set-up allows the user to study a range of parameters (temperature, gas flow rate, reactant) without removing the catalyst.